Five Eulsa Traitors

The Five Eulsa Traitors (Korean: 을사 오적) refers to the five officials serving under Emperor Gojong who signed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, which is also referred to as the Eulsa Treaty. The treaty made Korea a protectorate of Japan. The five officials were Education Minister Lee Wan-yong, Army Minister Yi Geun-taek, Interior Minister Yi Ji-yong [ko], Foreign Affairs Minister Pak Chesoon, and Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry Minister Gwon Jung-hyeon.

Initially, all of the ministers were against signing the treaty. Pak Chesoon even declared that he would rather commit suicide if Japan forced him to sign the treaty. However, under threat of execution, five of the ministers signed the treaty. Lee Wan-yong, Yi Ji-yong, and Gwon Jung-hyeon were the first to change their stance.^[1]

Prime Minister Han Kyu-seol, the ministers of finance and justice, and Emperor Gojong refused to sign the treaty. However, the treaty was deemed to have gone into effect with the five ministers' signatures, even though the Emperor refused to sign the treaty himself, an act required to bring the treaty to conclusion under Korean law. The Japanese government forced Prime Minister Han to step down and installed Pak in his place.

Widespread public dissatisfaction at the treaty was directed at the five ministers, and an "assassination group" was formed targeting the five. On December 6, 1905, one Korean Army soldier attempted to shoot Pak Chesoon as he was entering the palace.^[2] Yi Ji-yong's house was burned in the same year. Gwon Jung-hyeon was injured in an attack in 1907, and Yi Wan-yong was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in 1909.

In 2005, the Research Center for National Issues [ko] identified the names of the five officials responsible for the Eulsa Treaty, as part of its efforts to compile a directory of individual Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese before and during its colonial rule.

• 
  Yi Wan-yong
  Education Minister
• 
  Yi Geun-taek
  Army Minister
• 
  Yi Ji-yong [ko]
  Interior Minister
• 
  Pak Chesoon
  Foreign Affairs Minister
• 
  Gwon Jung-hyeon
  Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry Minister

• Chinilpa - a word that described people who collaborated with the Japanese during its occupation of Korea
• Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea

• Research Center for National Issues (민족문제연구소) – Korean language site.
• Chosun-Japanese Treates, 1904–1910
• Book review of Korea and the Politics of Imperialism, 1876–1910, by C. I. Eugene Kim and Kim Han-kyo – James B. Palais, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 863–864.
• 민족문제연구소 – Wikipedia article in Korean
• "Watch How You Use 'Traitor'"^{[permanent dead link]}, JoongAng Ilbo 2001.08.30

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Korea under Japanese rule

Colony of the Empire of Japan from 1910 to 1945

Government

• Governor-General of Chōsen (list)
• Japanese Korean Army

Cultural policies

• Chōsen Art Exhibition (1922–1944)
• Chosun Exhibition (1929)
• Colored Clothes Campaign (1920–1945)
• Office of the Yi Dynasty
• Sōshi-kaimei (1939–1945)
• Shinto in Korea
  • State Shinto

Economy

• Bank of Korea (1909–1950)
• Hwacheon Dam
• Korean yen
• Sup'ung Dam

Companies	Chōsen Anthracite Company Chōsen Government Railway Chosen Railway Oriental Development Company

Controversies

• Comfort women (list)
• Sakhalin Koreans

Forced labor	Aso Mining forced labor controversy Hashima Island Korean Women's Volunteer Labour Corps Sado Island Slavery during World War II Utoro, Uji
Events	105-Man Incident (1911) March First Movement (1919) Jeamri Massacre (1919) Battle of Fengwudong (1920) Battle of Samdunja Battle of Qingshanli (1920) Gando Massacre (1920–1921) Shinano River incident (1922) Kantō Massacre (1923) June 10th Movement (1926) Gwangju Student Independence Movement (1929) Hongkou Park Incident (1932) Battle of Pochonbo (1937) Korean Language Society Incident (1942)
Collaborators	Five Eulsa Traitors Hong Sa-ik Iljinhoe Korean History Compilation Committee Park Yeong-hyo Refrain Club Park Jung-yang Song Byeong-jun Yi Yun-yong
Independence movement	Declaration of Independence Independence Club Korean National Association List of militant independence organizations List of independence activists Provisional Government

Places and structures

• Altteureu Airfield
• Gyeongbokgung
• Government-General Museum of Chōsen
• Heijō Shrine
• Hyochang Park
• Japanese General Government Building, Seoul
• Keijō (Seoul)
• Keijō Post Office
• Keijō Shrine
• Keijō Imperial University
• Seodaemun Prison

Legacy

• Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea
• Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan
• Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine
• Japan–Korea disputes
• Japan–North Korea relations
• Japan–South Korea relations
• Japanese history textbook controversies
• List of war apology statements issued by Japan
• Division of Korea (1945–)
• Koreans in Japan (1945–)
• Hibakusha (1945–)
• Treaty of San Francisco (1952)
• Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (1965)
• Independence Hall of Korea (1987–)
• Murayama Statement (1995)
• Special Law to Redeem Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property (2005)
• Museum of Japanese Colonial History in Korea (2018–)

Comfort women

Futsukaichi Rest Home (1946–1947) The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (1990–) Wednesday demonstration (1992–) Kono Statement (1993) Asian Women's Fund (1994) Shimonoseki Trial (1998) Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery (2000) United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121 (2007) Japan–South Korea Comfort Women Agreement (2015)